outer space

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This Is the Farthest Galaxy Ever Spotted, Astronomers Say

They've discovered a galaxy from a time when the universe was just a 'toddler'

(Newser) - Astronomers say they have discovered a hot, star-popping galaxy that is far, far away—farther than any previously detected, from a time when the universe was a mere toddler of about 400 million years old. By employing a different technique—one that has raised some skepticism—a team of astronomers...

What Astronaut Scott Kelly Will Do as Soon as He Lands

His record-breaking trip was amazing

(Newser) - Scott Kelly has been hurtling through the cosmos on the International Space Station for nearly a year (340 days to be exact—a record), but on Tuesday, the NASA astronaut and his partner, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, will finally head home. ScienceAlert has the emotional video of Kelly handing the...

Massive Landfill Fire in India Can Be Seen From Space

NASA pic shows how bad toxic Mumbai blaze really is

(Newser) - Residents in Mumbai are posting smog-filled photos on Twitter and dozens of schools have shut down as a fire in the Indian city's largest landfill continues to burn. In fact, the blaze (which Mashable calls a "mystery fire") in the 326-acre Deonar landfill is so big that...

Scientists: There May Be a Giant 9th Planet Past Pluto

Sorry, Pluto—'Planet 9' may be more of a 'massive perturber' than you

(Newser) - Pluto is gonna be PO'd. While the dwarf planet tries to fight its way back into the good graces of Those Who Deem What Counts as a Planet, another icy orb even further out may snatch that designation first. Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology say a giant...

Constellation Named for David Bowie

A star on Earth, now a bunch of stars in the heavens

(Newser) - We may not be able to get a higher power to bring David Bowie back to Earth , but at least we can now see him whenever we look skyward. Ziggy Stardust will be forever memorialized in the cosmos thanks to a group of Belgian astronomers and a Belgian radio station,...

Scientists Coax First Flower to Bloom in Outer Space

A month ago the zero-gravity zinnia plants weren't looking so good

(Newser) - Back in 2014, through a NASA project called Veggie, scientists began to grow plants in space—red romaine lettuce, to be specific. It took two attempts to get it right, though even the setbacks provided valuable data for the scientists back at home. So astronaut Scott Kelly's ability to...

Mystery Space Junk to Strike Earth on Friday the 13th

NASA is tracking its descent

(Newser) - An unknown object is falling from the sky—WTF?? Actually, astronomers refer to it as WT1190F and say it's destined to strike Earth on Friday the 13th next month, CBS San Francisco reports. Bill Gray, an expert at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif., says the unknown...

Search Begins for Alien Signals Near Bizarre Star

The Allen Telescope Array is all fired up and looking for life

(Newser) - SETI's wide-range telescope is powered up and trained on KIC 8462852—the curious star in the North Hemisphere that's emitting an odd light pattern . The Allen Telescope Array, located a few hundred miles northeast of San Francisco, is actively hunting for alien signals coming from the star's...

Company Gets Patent for 12-Mile-High Space Elevator

Canadian company Thoth gets a patent for a 12-mile-high tower into space

(Newser) - A Canadian company best known for building tiny objects suitable for outer space has just earned a US patent on something distinctly grander: a 12-mile-high inflatable space elevator held up not by cables but by pressurized segments, reports fastcoexist.com . That's more than 20 times taller than the world’...

This Woman Just Set a Record in Space

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is close to being there for 200 days

(Newser) - Nearly 200 days in outer space is what Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will have logged when she touches down in Kazakhstan on Thursday, a feat that has given her the world record for the longest time in space by a woman on a single mission, USA Today reports. On Saturday,...

The Hubble Spots 'Smiley Face' in Space

Its 'eyes' are actually galaxies

(Newser) - The universe is smiling down on us—almost literally. The Hubble Telescope has captured a "smiley face" in space: two bright yellow eyes (a cluster of galaxies called SDSS J1038+4849), a white nose, and a faint smile and incomplete circle around the entire face. But those curving lines "...

FAA Trying to Regulate Moon Business

Reuters analyzes FAA letter to Bigelow Aerospace

(Newser) - Can American businesses now stake their claim on the moon? That's the indication from an FAA letter to Bigelow Aerospace, in which the agency reveals plans to "leverage the FAA's existing launch licensing authority to encourage private sector investments in space systems by ensuring that commercial activities...

Scientists Find 'Coldest Place in the Universe'

The Boomerang Nebula is minus 458 degrees Fahrenheit

(Newser) - Think winter is cold in your neck of the woods? It's nothing compared to the Boomerang Nebula (also known as the Bow Tie Nebula), where a dying star 5,000 light-years away has created the coldest known place in the universe, Smithsonian reports in a wintery look at the...

'Godzilla of Earths' Could Harbor Life

Kepler-10c is massive, old, and rocky—a shocking combination

(Newser) - Kepler-10c is a big, rocky planet that may harbor life—but what's most interesting is how big and rocky it is, Space.com reports. An exoplanet about 560 light-years away in the constellation Draco, Kepler-10c was spotted in 2011 and assumed to be gaseous because of its size. But...

NASA diapers forced men to make big revelation
NASA Diapers Forced Men
to Make Big Revelation
in case you missed it
Mar 29, 2014 12:56 PM CDT

NASA Diapers Forced Men to Make Big Revelation

Or, ahem, small

(Newser) - It was a mission-critical element: the size of NASA astronauts' manhood. Seriously. The Houston Chronicle resurrects the fascinating historical tidbit by way of the Science Channel's Moon Machines documentary series, in which engineer Donald Rethke explained the very precise nature of early space diapers. The Maximum Absorbency Garment system...

Dark Matter's 'Cosmic Web' Spotted for 1st Time

Scientists see glue that holds universe together

(Newser) - Scientists have seen a tendril of dark matter for the first time, and all it took was a "cosmic flashlight." Using the Keck telescope in Hawaii, a scientific team spotted the dark matter in a gas cloud illuminated by the radiation of a distant quasar, the BBC reports....

Slumbering Comet-Chaser About to Wake Up
 Slumbering 
 Comet-Chaser  
 Awakens 
UPDATED
Jan 20, 2014 12:41 PM CST

Slumbering Comet-Chaser Awakens

Rosetta ready for 1st mission to land on a comet

(Newser) - After snoozing since 2011, the comet-chasing Rosetta probe awoke today, sending the message "Hello World!" to the European Space Agency just after 1pm EST, according to the AP . The European probe, launched a decade ago, has been in a long hibernation to save power. Now, it's ready...

Why China's Moon Mission Matters

It could learn a lot about what we don't know about

(Newser) - Last month China became the third country to "soft land" on the moon, and as the Los Angeles Times points out, most residents of the second country to do so (that would be America) didn't bat an eyelash. But Chang'e 3 is blowing away one group: lunar...

We're About to Map the Milky Way

One of 'most ambitious space missions ever' begins

(Newser) - While you were sleeping, a truly massive undertaking got under way, one that the BBC terms "one of the most ambitious space missions in history." Europe's Gaia satellite—which has been two decades in the making—launched at 4:12am EST today, setting it on a course...

Brightest Space-Blast Ever Shocks Scientists

Gamma-ray burst defies current theories

(Newser) - Notice a little white spot in the sky earlier this year? That may have been the brightest gamma-ray explosion on record mixed with a powerful supernova, a combination scientists had never seen before, LiveScience reports. Because the blast was fairly close by—a mere 3.5 billion light-years—scientists were...

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